The government has switched funding from key aid projects to pay for Iraq's reconstruction, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

In an interview with ePolitix.com, the party's international development spokesman accused the government cutting projects worth £50 million to pay for initiatives in Iraq.

"The government have admitted that they have transferred £50 million worth of aid that had been allocated to countries elsewhere," said Tom Brake.

"What concerns me is that whilst the Department for International Development has to respond to the here and now, before the Iraq war these projects - such as those in Romania - were deemed to be a priority."

He believed that the cuts happened because the department was missing the "Clare Short factor" following her resignation over the Iraq war.

"I think it is a battle that Clare Short would have won," Brake said.

"She would have ensured that the department did not have to pick up the tab for a military intervention which was not been initiated by it.

"It would have been very difficult to get her to agree that money should be switched to Iraq.

"I would have thought Iraq is exactly what contingency funds are for."

Brake claimed the cuts had massive implications for developing countries.

"There is the issue of projects that will not take place that had been previously identified as being worthwhile," he said.

"There's also the problem that some are being stopped early and you have to ask whether they will now be able to deliver what had been anticipated.

"If they've been planned over a number of years and are now stopped, the outcome could be not nearly as valuable."

Brake called on the prime minister to raise the issue of US agriculture subsidies when he meets President Bush later this month.

But he was pessimistic about the possibility of change.

"The prospect of the Americans addressing the very substantial subsidies that they give to their farmers is very remote," he said.

Following the failure of the Cancun summit, Brake also urged the government to hold talks with the EU Commission to prevent a repeat at the next round of negotiations.

"People in the Third World live on a dollar a day but a cow in the EU receives two dollars a day in subsidies," he said.

"Britain must sit down with the EU Commission, and Pascal Lamy in particular and get him to agree that the Singapore issues that developed countries want on the agenda are put on the backburner."

"If we go into future talks without this it will ensure that the negotiations - such as those in Geneva over the next few months - will fail."